I know am still in the
United States, still in the country that I was born in, but I feel a world
apart. During my first hour upon my
arrival in El Paso, the warm climate wrapped around me like a welcomed embrace;
the introduction to the house where I will be living for the next two
months-plus felt like a beautiful day dream, and I found out that I really
really suck at Spanish. When I entered
Casa Vides, one of the few houses of Annunciation House that I am posted at for
my internship, I was welcomed by some of the cutest, sweetest Mexican grandmas
that the world could culminate in its imagination. They were greeting me, embracing me, and
saying things that I could not make out within my limited range of Spanish
skills. Maria, a year-long intern here,
showed me around the building, and let me get settled into my new room. The walls are painted white, with the
outermost layer cracked and chipped in a way that gives it some nice personality. There are to twin beds, one for me and one
for my roommate, Paige, and a window that allows in so much natural sunlight
that I might just cry from happiness. (Did I mention that I am on the second
floor?) Right outside of the room, there
is a nice chill-out area for the interns, with the essential comfy couches that
one necessitates for loafing on after a day full of doing work and other
various activities, and some books and a tea pot to top it off. Oh, not to mention the door that leads to the
little balcony area. (So Sarah Palin can
see Russia from her house? I can see Mexico from mine!) Also connected to this little lounge area are
the two bedrooms for the two year-long volunteers stationed here.
I feel like I really lucked out here because two of
the other summer interns were placed in a floor-level room without the easy
access to the things that I just mentioned above. But I didn’t feel bad about that for too
long. I took a nap, because a flight
that leaves before 6am means one sleep-deprived traveler, and then decided to
explore the area a little bit. I left
the house and headed southeast, finding a busy part of the city very close by.
I hit a street, conveniently named El Paso, that ran perpendicular to what I
was on and followed it. There were
clothing shops galore, and I couldn’t help but notice that every single word I
was hearing around me was in Spanish. I
was surrounded by a new language. Cars
passing were blasting Latin music; I could hear the street vendors indicating
sales (I assume) in a different tongue; and I started to realize, for not the
first time in my life, that I was one of the few white people around. (Funny
how things come back around.) Upon my
stroll down El Paso, I noticed the stores come to an end and a border station
not too far ahead of me. Mexico. It was so close I could feel it. Or maybe I felt like I was already there on
this street that was flitting with Mexican music and phrases and people.
But
I can feel that I wasn’t. One day I’ll
venture to the other side of the border crossing, but not today. At the moment, I was really hungry, not
having eaten a real meal since dinner the night before (it was lunch time), and
spent the rest of my exploration period wandering around for a place that wasn’t
Burger King or McDonald’s where I could have decent meal. I finally stumbled upon Martha’s Café, a cute
little joint that served mainly Mexican food.
(This, delicious-sounding establishment was the perfect venue for my
first meal here, though I had to ask the waiter to interpret my meal choice
because heck if I know what half the stuff was and I am a vegetarian that
doesn’t want to slip up and order a dish with meat in it.) I decided on
enchiladas (YUM!), and enjoyed my meal in beautiful solitude, with some
occasional glances at BBC World News on my iPhone.
This
is where my life has taken me for now, to the edge, or the border if you will,
of the world I was born in to. I hope to
detail some of my experiences here. I
hope those who choose to follow my blog will enjoy some tales and musings that
I will be writing about, and will hopefully benefit from them as well.
Until next we meet, I send you all my love,
No comments:
Post a Comment